NBN cheapskate plans?

Most of my immediate family is likely to have the NBN rolled out in our different areas in the next six to nine months. My sister is likely to hang onto her VDSL2, but my mother needs to make some sort of choice - including whether she wants a data connection and if so, how much. At the moment her only access to the Internet is via an iPad with 4G.

Are there relatively small, low-cost NBN plans for people in this kind of situation? I see that she doesn’t have to get a data plan, but she is ambivalent about the idea and I suspect she may be able to save money with the right provider and options.

3 Likes

Hi @postulative, the best resource for you to investigate is probably whistleout. If I search locally ( inner southern Sydney ), there are NBN plans starting at $40/month.

https://www.whistleout.com.au/Broadband

5 Likes

My ISP has a satellite plan for $32.95/month, with 10GB peak, 100GB off-peak, however, that’s only going to be available if your mum lives somewhere outside of a city or town, ie the 95% of Australia that has no access to a decent internet connection.

4 Likes

I’ve checked Whistleout, and all the plans it lists have data - starting at $29.90/month. I’ll need to do more digging.

Actually, getting her a plan with data isn’t necessarily all bad. My external backup provider (CrashPlan) is getting rid of standard consumers like me, and I’d be happy to back up to a hard drive at her house. It would take a big disaster to wipe us both out.

2 Likes

See this link in “NBN Wiki”

TPG offer a basic plan for $30 a month, 10 GB data and 12/1 Mbps +$10 for unlimited calls in Australia (not ones starting with 13 though, these are charged for) nor does it support calls to numbers starting with 19.

dodo offer a similar plan that has same data etc

Aussie Broadband
https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/residential/residential-phone/voice-only-nbn/

Telstra (these are for the NBN as well). For pensioners on the Home Phone Local plan and above eg National there is also a $15 a month call credit available to help offset pay for calls including numbers starting with 13.

Optus

I am sure there will be others but this should give you a good start.

If requiring data then even the phone only plans in the list can be adjusted with the providers to have broadband + phone if needed eg Aussie Broadband
https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/residential/internet-phone-bundle/

Telstra Broadband bundle with unlimited calls to Australian numbers will start at $80 per month with 100 GB data.

Optus will charge you $70 a month for unlimited Internet + calls to Australian numbers inc mobiles or $65 if mobiles are charged calls. This is with their NBN Speed Pack 1 which is the 12/1 Mbps speed tier.

5 Likes

when NBN arrived last October 2017 NBN sent me a list of 78 available suppliers to my address, after carefully researching each one down the list I came up with 3 possibles, but in all cases if you wanted VOIP phone you needed the highest plan to get unlimited phone costs Plus Extra for International calls, most only charged you per call, a few had 2000 to 4000 minutes for an extra payment, I finally settled for 1 100/40 unlimited data, VOIP All local, National, Mobile, 1300 calls included free Unlimited, International Calls to 15 selected countries (only needed 3 no problem) total cost $110 per calendar month, with HARBOUR ISP @ Mudgee NSW we are some 700 km away still in NSW. I have had absolutely no problems with the NBN VOIP…however the 3 to 5 day payment from invoice date of 5th, 6th, 7th of the month, I feel needs to be extended to 21 days.

5 Likes

So much to learn! I’m amazed that the rollout has gone so well to this point!

2 Likes

I am classified as a Senior Citizen and I do not have a home phone, mobile only. I’m with Internode (from memory now owned by iiNet who are owned by TPG) cost per month is $80.36. Broken down it is $49.99 for 100G data, and $29.99 for unlimited phone calls and text Australia wide, plus 4G data on my phone (via Optus) - which I rarely use - the 30cents difference is because I choose to pay be credit card, direct debit has no extra charge. I use nearly all my allowance per month as I enjoy streaming of both catch up TV and Netflix - Internode reshape the speed if the limit has been reached. I have the lowest speed available and the NBN is about 50 metres from my house, in the Regional Township of Mackay. I rarely have buffering but if I do it’s at only when loading what I have chosen to stream. Internode’s service in beyond reproach - I’ve been a customer since 2005. I am not on fixed plan, but as a casual month to month and I can change up or down whenever I wish. (haven’t needed to so far as far as the NBN is concerned), but I noticed that the mobile plan has changed from 2GB to 4GB, at no cost, so I changed that. :+1::+1::+1:

1 Like